1. February 22, 2012

2. Key Claims about Impact of the
Internet on Political Parties
 Party Competition (possible lower cost to start a new
party)
 Power Diffusion (increased grassroots control over
candidates)
 Institutional Adaptation (parties adapt to the
Internet by using it to buttress their advantages, party
competition will not increase)

3. The Howard Dean Campaign
 2003-2004 Campaign
 Joe Trippi in charge of Internet
strategy
 Early alliance with meetup.com
 Early support from the Daily Kos
 Dean won in New Hampshire
but ultimately lost to Kerry

4. The 2008 Obama Campaign
 Extensive use of the Internet to solicit
small campaign contributions and to
build a network of campaign
workers/volunteers
 Extensive use of YouTube to spread
David Plouffe
awareness of the campaign by
repurposing campaign ads
 More limited use of interactivity to video
gather ideas from supporters and to vet
ideas from campaign headquarters

5. The 2008 Presidential Election
 What the Pew Internet and American Life Project has
to say about it (report).
 More got politic al info from the Internet, espec. online
political videos
 Increased use of social networking sites (MySpace and
Facebook)
 Increase in online contributors from 2 percent in 2004
to 6 percent in 2008
 Some self-reports of voter empowerment but also of
worries about extremism and misinformation

6. Discussion Points (Chadwick, ch. 7)
 Has the early potential of the Internet been realized
in the area of election campaigning?
 Why has the United States witnessed greater levels of
online campaigning than the United Kingdom?
 Assess the long-term significance of the Dean
campaign of 2003-2004.
 Is online interaction too risky for politicians?
 Have parties successfully adapted to the Internet?
 Evaluate the claim that the Internet will combat voter
apathy.

7. Defining e-Government
 “…e-government initiatives usually involve several
types of electronic and information systems, including
database, networking, discussion support,
multimedia, automation, tracking and tracing, and
personal identification technologies.”
 Can be used at all levels of government from local to
national.
 Goals for use are diverse.
 May be useful to distinguish among G2G, G2B, and
G2C communications.

8. Historical Developments in US
 U.S. National Performance Review (1993 supervised
by VP Al Gore)
 Creation of government portal, Firstgov (now called
USA.gov)
 Clinton memorandum to accelerate e-government
 Government Paperwork Elimination Act of 1998
 E-Government Act of 2002
 More history of initiatives can be found on the OMB
Office of E-Government and Information Technology
web site

9. Work of Darrell West
 IU Political Science PhD
 Until recently he taught at Brown
University
 Currently head of Governance
Studies at the Brookings
Institution
 Check out his web site,
Inside Politics, for data on e-
government at the state and
federal government levels and also
for international comparisons

10. Work of Stuart Shulman
 Univ. of Oregon PhD
 Taught at Univ. of Pittsburgh,
1999-2008
 Currently at U. Mass, Amherst
 Main research: federal agency
rule-making
 Founder of the
Journal of Information Technology and Politics

11. Discussion Points (Chadwick, ch. 8)
 What are the policy origins of e-government?
 Is e-government about better government, better
democracy, or both?
 How is e-government different from previous
government computerization initiatives?
 Doe e-government change power relations with
public bureaucracies?
 Does e-government redistribute power within the
political system?